Reviewer slams furries for infesting her hotel – you’ll cry when you see the Manager’s epic reply.
by Patch O'Furr
Texas Furry Fiesta was awesome for most everyone who was there. But one irate hotel guest had a nasty attitude towards the cute fuzzies breathing her air. On Tripadvisor, Nasty Nicola really let them have it:
Sounds terrible. Maybe next time she WOULD even bother if the hotel didn’t have such an BAD manager. He didn’t give a warning about the fluffballs trying to get away with heinous activity like hugs, making art, or getting treated with basic common decency. Who could be worse than dirty furry trash? (I resemble that remark…) Well, I’ll tell you: Someone who’s racist against furries and a cheapskate jerk to service workers too. That’s an worse person.
Remember when the Vermont Furries faced discrimination? They got told they couldn’t play with others at Mardi Gras, because their costumes were too costume-y unlike other people’s costumes. What did they do? They got up in front of their city council and changed the law. No leashes, no masters!
Of course hotels are prepared for this kind of thing. I hope they give employee awards for handling it right. If they do, Employee of the Millenium goes to manager STEFAN “PREACH-IT” HUBER, for the way he beamed a stern Care Bear Stare right in Nasty Nicola’s face:
Dear nicolacraig,
As I told you during our phone call earlier in the week, I am sorry to hear how displeased your guests were with their experience at our hotel.
Concerning the other group that was at the hotel while your guests were here, as I explained to you, we are not in a position, and most definitely don’t have the right, nor the inclination, to discriminate against anyone guest or any group. As a hotel, we cater to all kinds of travelers and conventions and do not feel it is necessary, to use your word, “warn”, anyone as to who is also in-house when booking.
As far as pricing is concerned, every hotel sells at different price points depending on a variety of different factors. Being a travel agent, surely you are exposed to this on an ongoing basis. Hotels are no different than airlines in the sense that you could be sitting next to someone in an airplane that paid hundreds of dollars less than you did, merely due to the fact that they booked at a different time than you did.
I have to admit that I am offended by this review for several reasons. First, because I don’t understand how you, particularly as a travel agent, can feel right about insisting on certain guests being better than others, and second, you are harming our reputation simply because I would not compensate you for your guests’ expectations to be surrounded by “like” individuals and because you expected to be “warned” that we have the D.R.A.M.A Convention at the hotel when booking these rooms.
I offer my apologies, but that is not the world we live in and most certainly not how we conduct our business.
Sincerely,
Stefan Huber
General Manager
BAM. He also replied to a less than honest furry guest and showed them how Momma Huber didn’t raise no fool.
Now this might be a fun followup if you have a minute: tweet to @InterConDallas and thank them for hosting Furry Fiesta, and @elsanjuanhotel to tell them to promote this man up to the moon. (Not literally, duh… moon tourism isn’t quite there yet.) Puerto Rico is his new location (he must have been called there to show them how to just slay at hospitality.)
In closing, every con should have such a stand-up guy who can professionally tell a hater to go eat a satchel of Hickory-Smoked Horse Buttholes.
PS: D.R.A.M.A. is the Dallas Regional Anthropomorphic Meeting Association. That’s the secret furry illuminati who organize Furry Fiesta.
I came up with the acronym. 😀
— my battery is low and it is getting dark (@FuzzWolf) March 23, 2017
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Dude, please don’t say “racist against furries”. We aren’t a race, we’re a fandom, and it’s ignorant and disrespectful to co-opt a word that implies centuries of structural oppression. Prejudiced? Sure, but not racist. As a writer, I would implore you, please work on your words.
“Subculture” is a nice word. I loved writing a humor piece about fear of strangers… If you can’t joke about racism, nazis, death, etc then we lost one of the best weapons against the bastards of the world and they might win 🙁 Racist jokes are touchy but nonseriously using the word “racism” is congruent with editorial policy.
I have mixed feelings on this. This to me feels like one big misunderstanding. I feel like the lady was complaining more about not being notified about the convention going on’s rather than them being furries. She did not mention in her post that she was bothered by them specifically. I agree with her however about the hotel ‘notifying’ their guests about a con going on beforehand. Some go to hotels for some quiet and conventions can get really loud for other guests not expecting that kind of behavior. Its just polite to mention anyway and if the hotel did fail to mention the convention going on, then I feel that is just disrespectful for other guests coming to expect some peace and quiet. Perhaps the way she worded her statement made it sounds alot ruder than she intended. But perhaps more people shouldn’t be so quick to judge without considering seeing a situation from their point of view.
Could be. The manager mentions a phone call before she left a bad-faith review, so I was thinking the tone of his response could imply she really did have something against the con.
To be honest, she was a travel agent and more than likely booked through a third party site. These sites have no idea what events are going on, even the hotel sited themselves do not list what events are going in there hotels. Its up to you to ask when you book a room if there are any events going on. The hotel has no obligation to tell everyone that calls to book a room what events are going on. Most hotels make there money by booking events just about every weekend, whether a fur con, wedding, or some other type of convention. Ill be if there were 500 medical doctors there having a convention, I doubt she would have complained one bit.Its always up to the individual making a reservation to find out about these things, the hotel has zero obligation to notify potentials guest of the activities going on in the hotel. People who are at the Westn for Anthrocon have no idea either unless they are locals, we see it every year, people had no idea about it. So for her to be a travel agent, and be that concerned over events going on at hotels, then she should have called the hotel before booking and asked. I would be on her side if 100 people complained, but she is the only one! She should know better.
I am really, genuinely impressed by these replies. Bravo, Stefan Huber!
He manages to be unfailingly polite, but firm and assertive; he makes it clear that the hotel has core values that it takes very seriously; and his reply to the furry shows that he is loyal to the hotel staff, and will fact-check rumors with them before just idly throwing them under the bus over a customer complaint.
Colour me impressed! More of us could stand to learn to communicate this way.
I have to wonder, somewhat, how good a travel agent she is if she paid $300 for an $80 room.
I constantly have been told how better travel agents are than actually using computer reservation systems on line and trip planning solutions, yet, this one gladly paid $220 more for a room despite being a “pro.”
My thoughts precisely.
An animated cartoon about a dissatisfied hotel guest. (Incidentally, this was Tex Avery’s last theatrical animated cartoon.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w0QoQX48kw
I don’t see any comments here that the hotel did not consider the furry conventioneers to be satisfactory guests – that the hotel is telling them not to return. Or that he is fobbing the complainer off with the false pretense that he will do so. He is polite but firm in his defense of other guests who behave themselves. I agree; bravo!
Fyi, the “less than honest guest” you mentioned happens to be a staff lead. Their situation was not handled properly. Also, the restaurant is overpriced, and the quality of the food is a joke amongst many congoers. Why do you think the food trucks are such a hit?
Fortunately, we won’t have to worry about it next year.
Hotel restaurants cost a lot like snacks at a movie theater, and the manager’s response was reasonable and convincing. (Was it someone else’s pink fur in the burger?) I hope the con is careful to keep staff professionalism and wish them the best at their new location.